Danny Boy: the Life and Times of Martin Brian Mulroney
I’ll admit to shedding a few tears when, at the end of Brian Mulroney’s funeral they played a clip of himself singing We’ll Meet Again in his lovely Irish baritone, or earlier a few lines from Danny Boy. I’ll also admit that although I’m not a Tory, I voted consistently for him, and regard him as one of Canada’s most consequential Prime Ministers.
Canada has been blessed with Prime Ministers who understood their role to press forward to make our country a better place, to drive change and to make us progress when sometimes we’d prefer to sit sullenly in the corner and suck our thumbs. Macdonald, Laurier, Pierre Trudeau, and Chretien also deserve to stand in these ranks, and even Harper in his stiff way, and Mackenzie King, in his crafty, weird fashion.
What Mulroney, and the other greats, understood is that they had a vision of how things could be, and they also possessed the Giftings to make them happen, or at least do their damnedest.
Mulroney understood that Canada, with about one-ninth the population of the United States, could not prosper economically unless the economies of the two countries were integrated at a deep level, and essentially bullied, conned, and charmed the Americans into the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement. He introduced the Goods and Services Tax, a VAT which we all hate but which was instrumental in pulling Canada out of a tax deficit tailspin and putting our national finances on a solid footing. His successor campaigned on revoking it, but of course in power did no such thing.
As a good Conservative, he nationalized 23 of 61 Crown Corporations, and frankly, nobody looked up from dinner. Remember the “Peoples’ Airline” and its indifferent service?
On the constitutional front he fought mightily to resolve our still-unresolved halfway status, thwarted twice by petty regional politicians who are now mostly forgotten except for their spite. Mulroney said afterwards that he “rolled the dice” and it was what it was, therein a lesson for all of us.
He pushed through the Environmental Assessment Act and the Environmental Protection Act, both years ahead of most other Western nations, and insisted that a treaty on acid rain be integral to our treaties with the USA, who wasn’t yet on that page. He was a world leader in opposing apartheid in South Africa at a time nobody really cared much about the subject.
Flawed? He’d be the first to admit it, and to his death lived under the shadow of the Airbus Affair. But overall, Mulroney was a man of great talent who knew how to apply his multiple Giftings to get things done. Insight, charm, genuine care for others, and the guts to do what was right.
John Nunziata, the gadfly who made Mulroney’s life miserable in the Commons, tells the story that the night before his wedding, the phone rang, and the familiar baritone on the other end said, “John? Brian here. Just wanted to give you a buzz to wish you all the best on your special day.” Literally thousands of Canadians can tell of such personal calls.
It’s that mixture of Giftedness, guts, personality, decency, vision, and wisdom that makes for great leadership, and for success in whatever we do.
And you have Giftings, decency, vision, wisdom, personality, and courage, too. They may not look like Brian Mulroney’s, but they’re equally special, and equally potent.
Are you maximizing yours?